Thursday, February 19, 2009

Prolific or Proficient?

As I sit here assembling the teddy bear brigade. I will have them all done by tomorrow (oh my god....YAY!) I was thinking about being prolific vs proficient. I'm wondering now how that plays out with a small business.

I consider myself very proficient with my sewing, thanks to my mum. She started teaching me the rudiments of hand sewing when I was but a wee tot. (as if I was ever wee) By the time jr. high home ec rolled around I was well versed with machines, patterns, basic tailoring. While my eager classmates were trying to follow the dotted line on a piece of paper with the machines, I was working on dresses, blouses, and slacks with.....oh dear...the dreaded zipper. Ok so that one I put in the proficient column.

Later in a college art class I got another perspective. I enjoy painting. My preferred medium is oils. I love the smell, the feel as I brush the canvas, and the textures I can achieve. I lean towards an impressionistic style. Once again, I was gleefully going all out. I produced 6 paintings that quarter. Some I was gloriously proud of and are still hanging in my home, some I painted over. (oh well , waste not want not) The professor told me I was very prolific! hmmm is that a compliment? or just an observation of my working style.

So I decided to look closer at my chosen arts. I am both. When I find something I love doing I tend to focus so much on it that I am very prolific. Producing masses of said art, but it leads to proficiency. The more I work the better I get at it, the more I learn and want to expand my feeble knowledge. I believe business wise that it's a good blend to have. If you are in the business of selling your art you have to create a quality product, and if your art does sell ( as I learned this last Christmas ( thankfully) you have to be able to produce in quantity as well. So what kind of artist are you? proficient, prolific? Does this affect your art or your business.

3 comments:

I think I am both. I am artistic and I am a pretty good business person too. What I lack is organization. I spend half of my time looking for things. But, my packages go out quickly and the person on the receiving end never knows how many times I lost the scissors while creating their piece of art.

I like to think I am both...but who knows. After this week the only thing I have been proficient in is coughing up a lung and losing my voice...:) I am an organized person..especially when it comes to work or my business...right now though all I can think about is all the work I have to catch up on at School after not being there the past 3 days...So come Monday I will have to go to work...Tomorrow I am hoping to list about 8 items in my Art Fire shop..Let's see if I can manage to stay awake that long:):)

Love this post. I also tend to go nuts about anything that I find out I am good at. I had my painting time, longgg writting time, I got into belly dancing for some time and now it's sewing, however sewing has been my biggest passion ever! :)